Conversation of a Secret Meeting
by Marco A. Salazar
Summary: Recording of a secret meeting between Asgard bigwigs that will trigger lots of changes. Oneshot prequel to my 'Labors' series.Rated for language.


**CONVERSATION OF A SECRET MEETING**

**--WELCOME TO THE GODDESS RELIEF OFFICE CLASSIFIED DATABASE--**

**--PLEASE SELECT A TOPIC--**

**--……--**

**--TOPIC SELECTED.--**

**-DISPLAYING CONVERSATION 843495-Phi-Delta-39, RECORDED RAMCH 3, ASGARDIAN YEAR 39094.**

**Transcription of discussion made by SYLIA STINGRAY, FIRST-CLASS GODDESS BELLDANDY, FIRST-CLASS GOD TOLTIIR, THIRD-CLASS GOD MAMBO JACK in undisclosed location inside Asgard Combat Zone.**

Doors open and close, chairs scrape on the floor as people take their seats. A moment of silence. 

**Woman's voice, cultured (Stingray, Sylia's) :** Lady, gentlemen. I'm glad that you made it to this place, and hope it was a pleasant ride.

**Rough man's voice (Toltiir**) : I seriously don't know why you had us coming to the middle of the Combat Zone just to discuss business, Stingray.

**A slight cough, followed by a pseudo-Jamaican-accented voice (Mambo Jack**) : I suppose it'll have to do with your little corporation, I guess. No spy in their right mind would come to this place.

**Silence, then slide passing. Stingray** : This was passed to me by one of my liaisons inside the GRO. This-apparently-happened just ten hours ago. Would someone tell me what it is?

(**EDITOR'S NOTE**: Image was a photo, depicting a heavily injured man coming into a morgue. Burnt to a crisp, bathed in acid, missing an arm, beat up, shot up, knives sticking out of him, stomped flat… there's no longer a man on the picture, not enough to bury, anyway.)

**Soft woman's voice (Belldandy) :** He-that guy-was the victim of a Running Man Bet made by Saotome. He lasted a month on the run before being caught on Las Vegas.

Stingray : When were you informed from the Bet? I supposed Running Men were illegal under penalty of exile.

Belldandy : (Spiteful tone) I knew it from the beginning, but was ordered to not stop it. That man did nothing to deserve the Bet, but I couldn't do anything.

Mambo Jack : And did you tried to go around regular channels?

Belldandy : Anything I tried to get this case to Father was stopped-even tried to go thru channels on the other Offices. My friends, co-workers, subordinates, my own sisters… they all let this slide.

(Slight mocking tone) Because they didn't wanted me to 'anger Saotome-sama'.

Mambo Jack : Everybody? What about you?

Belldandy : I have enough with Keiichi. That freakin' wizard's got every girl on the arcology wrapped around his finger.

Toltiir : That…. Is bad. It has got to be the biggest case of corruption on the story of the Offices.

Stingray : And while they were trying to get in his pants, they let a lot of things slide. (click, slide passing).

Toltiir : What's with the silver Oscar?

Stingray : The 'Silver Oscar', as he said, is an alternate version of Sailor Moon. Aside from being former herald of Galactus, she's a member of the Justice League, Stargate

Command, IASA, Starfleet, she has had training by the Themisciran Amazons, Chinese Amazons, Dr. Fate, the Bene Geseritt, Colonial Marines, Starfleet-and aside from having a number of enhancements and old flames that-frankly-I'd take all of this time making heads or tails out of, she is friend of every kind of modern pop character from Minako Aino to Zatanna Zatarra-and EVERYBODY in between.

Toltiir : Yeah, NOW I recognize her. The Office agent in charge of maintaining the file killed himself early this week. Said he 'couldn't take it anymore'. (mutters) Poor bastard.

Mambo Jack : But that's why we're here? Some crazy Sailor Moon alternate?

(Click, slide passing)

Stingray : Alternate Universe BGC-2336MC. Super-powered Nene, super-villain amuck-dead now, however-unlicensed dimensional and time travel. It is now Iron Man's summer retreat.

(click)

Alternate Universe AMGSMR-3995C. A wish has turned the Sailor Senshi into Marionette androids, and Sailor Pluto's attempts at repairing the damage had done nothing but hundreds of alternate timelines-half of which, BTW, she has deleted with no mercy. Ranma Saotome is a James Bond-ish secret agent, and need I say that there's now at least a hundred girls waging war to be the 'Bond girl' of the day?

(click)

Alternate Universe CCM40102. An unobserved version of that 'Akira' kid –the Katsushiro Otomo one- has created a psionic backlash akin to the DC universe's reboot in the 80's.

(click)

Alternate Universe NBSI 6-88607. Unauthorized Timeline Fusion of DBZ and Sailor Moon. You think Goku's a tough dumb mother? Imagine him being replaced with Usagi Tsukino, and those planet-blasting Super Saiyan powers being augmented with the Silver Millennium Crystal.

And-oh yeah- the entire cast having the ante upped to fit this new development.

(click)

Alternate Universe ST-919207. It is the Second Iraq War, and there's Wakiji running amok all over the Middle East. I checked personally this one, and it seems that the responsible to keeping them in their realm decided to let them escape to 'give Saotome-sama something fun.'

(sighs) There's already several thousand dead, and I don't wanna know how many will die before that jackass thinks it's hero time.

(click)

And last but not least, Alternate Universe FRTAKK989604. It was supposed to be an 'ECHOES' of that new universe with the TV Superman. The goddess is-as we speak-making line to try to get screwed by that jackass. (click) Now events that were supposed to happen in the 2000's are happening in the 90's, and by December '95 there'll be an alien invasion.

Stingray continues : And to this I must add the hundreds of Author Rages, kidnappings, unauthorized travels, and lots of generally weird things that are just not supposed to happen. A good number of these we can trace back to the current situation, and some others… are just seizing the moment. Keep in mind, however, I'm just showing you 'mild' ones. There's lots more-LOTS more-that have a worse situation.

Toltiir : So what? My realm's chaos. I say, let it happen.

Mambo Jack : If what she says it's true, then it's only doing unnecessary harm. So what do you suggest? We deploy agents or something?

Belldandy : With our current rules of engagement and the hostility they're throwing out, there's no way we can use agents. Not without heavy casualties-and losing them for nothing is not what we want. (pause) Are you suggesting we use avatars?

Stingray : I can count –off the top of my head- 20 cases right now that started by turning some character into an avatar. Most of them versions of Ranma Saotome. Of those, some 10 of them got worse by enabling another avatar.

Toltiir : (Offended tone) Why are you looking at me like that?

Mambo Jack You're suggesting a solution?

Stingray : Right now, I can tell you how I think. Back where I was on MegaTokyo, there was no Stingray Industries, there was no Offices, there was no… help from above, so to speak. The war I waged against Genom was one of shadows and reaction-we could do nothing offensive per se, all we could do was keep Genom in line, the Sabers and I.

(Sighs, slight humming and squeaks-from wheels) Look what it got me. I know right now one thing- either you go for the offensive, or you better have one hell of a defense. Either way, there should be no quarter by you.

(sotto voce) Damned 'superheroes', that's what everybody wants. Fuck it, I called my team the Knight Sabers just because the suits looked like armor.

(pause)

Stingray continues : What I'm proposing to you right now is brand-new type of field agent. Designed for proactive-ness, for offensive. High survivability, high lethality, completely disposable-a warrior for a dirty war. A dirty war, by US, to shock them into a full stop.

I gathered all of you here for one reason-you're all fed up. Fed up from the corruption. Fed up from agents that can do nothing but stand there and get hit by the first jackass with a big hammer to come along. Fed up from doing nothing but watch…

Belldandy : (interrupts) You forgot one thing. Several of those guys with 'big hammers' have what it takes to carry them around. They could be Saiyans, Kryptonians, Guyvers, Juraians, Silver Millennium. They could be Wizards, psions, shamans, martial artists, cyborgs, super-clones… they could be just plain wackos. And most of them you could hit with a bigger hammer and they wouldn't even flinch.

Stingray : And what I'm saying is, a lot of this evil won't just disappear to a good. If anything, a well-defined 'good' would only make it just… up the ante, so to speak.

We need not a good, but another kind of evil. As much evil as WE can afford to have.

That's why I'm developing something new to go with that. Once you give me the go-ahead, I can have a prototype up and running in 90 days, guaranteed. And I can assure you, it'll make any hammer good for the job.

Toltiir : What's with the 'hammer' references, anyway? You're gonna turn Akane Tendo into a sort of Robocop?

Stingray : No… but that idea doesn't sounds half bad.

Mambo Jack : Sylia, I've met a lot of versions of you, and I know for a fact that you wouldn't try to sell us something you wouldn't use. I say yes.

Belldandy : I'm with it, but just because I think it's a good idea. I work in the office every day thinking Keiichi will get hit by a lost ki-blast or something… if it mans reducing those chances, I'm in.

Toltiir chuckles : Stingray… I don't know how you're going to pull this off, but I'm sure going to be amused if you DO make it. You have my blessings.

Stingray : Now, people, it has come the time to go. If you leave now, you'll have time to arrive to your jobs without arising suspicion of where you went for lunch hour. In 90 days, come to my office and we'll talk.

(Sounds of people saying their farewells and leaving the room. Door closes heavily. After two minutes, sounds of a cell phone dialing up).

Stingray : Hakubi? Project 'Hellsoldier' is a go. Retrieve the body and contact me if you succeed, code-word 'Zebra'. (brief pause-maybe listening?). It's just step 1, but it'll soon be payback time.

(Recording stops)


End file.
